System Stalker Lab

Overview

Pottery. It is a form of physical art that involves an intimate interaction between the artist and the object. The sculpture responds directly to the forces exerted on it by the sculptor. Despite the seemingly effortless gestures of the artist, the three dimensional transformation suggests the simultaneous presence of multiple, implicit processes and therefore can be seen as highly complex.

Using this observation as the framework for the analysis, the project involves investigations that attempt to dissect and categorize the observation into three different behaviours: transitory, internal, and external. All datasets are collected from a static pictureframe in a consistent point of view to capture the subtle transformation of the clay. First, nine pictureframes of the sculpting process are chosen as major milestones of the transformation sequence. The profile curves of the clay are then traced and simplified into straight sections using equidistant points along the curves. From analyzing these profile curves, three distinct behaviours are identified, each with its sub-category of three typologies.

View 1: Transitory Behaviour
Reciprocal, Alignment, Misalignment

The first view looks at the transitory behaviour found in the transformation process from one sequence to the next. The consistency of the quantity of markers enabled us to create a direct linkage between the sequences and allowed us to look at the tendencies found between each set of markers. The transitions were broken down into movements in the x and y-axis and overlaid to observe the relationship between the two. Upon doing this, we observed 3 different types of typologies: reciprocal, alignment, and misalignment.

View 2: Internal Behaviour
Linear, Dynamic 1, Dynamic 2

The second view looks at the internal behaviour found within the geometry of the curvature itself. Using the vector quantity of each segment as the reference line of rotation, relative angles were measured and translated into a visual graph. On top of the general tendencies illustrated by the graphs, magnitude of the relative angles were also considered to enhance the acuteness of the observation. Upon doing this, we observed 3 different types of typologies: linear, dynamic (small), dynamic (big).

View 3: External Behaviour
Taper, Expansion, Contraction

The third view looks at the external behaviour found between the geometry of the profile curvature and the centre of axis. By treating the centre of axis as the “generator” that defines the geometry of the curve, a set of projection lines were drawn between the centre of axis and each marker on the curve. From this, a comparison between each individual segment length and angle and “base” length and angle were made to withdraw 3 different types of typologies: taper, expansion, and contraction.

Curve Refinement & Accumulative Revolution

Carrying the analysis forward, we were able to translate and simulate the behaviours using pythonscript. After we established a working system, we allowed the script a certain degree of freedom and indeterminacy to yield unexpected results. The profile curve grew with each subsequent pass, simulating the original sculpting procedure of the artist.

The analysis allowed us to create a rule set that would be integrated into a code written in Rhino Python and generate an unpredictable object that would reflect the different lenses used in the analytical process. Reflecting the 3 studies and their findings in 1B, Phase 1C establishes three rules of curvature transformation: Transitory, internal and external based refinements. By performing them randomly, the algorithm reunites the three transformations to define curvature refinement in three different point of views.